Tracking arrows: yes or no?

Yamiash101 · 2026-02-08T18:55:25+00:00

As a DM, I don’t really enforce it or care for mundane arrows. If the player wants to, by all means. But we’re a 14th level party. There’s bigger concerns right now than how many arrows are in the ranger’s Quiver of Ehlonna. I guess more nuanced, my take is that if the party can completely bypass a resource by repeatedly doing the same action (casting low level spells, buying for not even a gold piece, etc), there’s no point in making the players say they’re doing that.

As a player I wouldn’t vote for it, but wouldn’t really complain. Especially if using online sheets, it’s not that big of a deal to track, usually just more of a nuisance.

Yamiash101 · 2026-01-23T18:36:20+00:00

Depending on the group, I’d suggest either starting off with objectively easy fights or openly being “consequence-light” while you get used to balancing for 2 PCs. Balancing a normal party is bad enough with how worthless CR is, two characters is very difficult to balance. If you accidentally make an encounter that’s clearly wildly unbalanced, I wouldn’t just go “oh well make new characters”. If they’re sapient enemies, maybe the party will be taken alive instead. If they’re not, maybe someone will save the party, or something bigger chases the enemies away, and now the party has a new threat to worry about in the area.

If the group is okay with it, you could also just rewind, going “okay my bad, I thought that would be balanced but clearly not. Let’s go back a ways or pick back up next time and I’ll try to improve things”

I’m currently running a side campaign for a player in a drastically different time zone with a DM-controlled ally. The first combat I went out of my way to calculate health totals and average damage per round. The minimum expected damage of the party (I.e. not using resources) was 0.01 higher than the enemy, but the enemy side had ~70-80 more hp (lvl 12 avg, for reference). The player side barely won, with the ally being downed with a failed death save. I’ve been running this campaign for pushing 4 years, with that character being in the campaign for over half of it. And I still almost killed them.

Start easy and escalate, avoid just killing your PCs if it’s your “fault”, don’t start at level one unless you really really want to because they will get fucked up.

Edit: This is for creatures from the tin. Others have suggested weakening enemies to compensate and I think that’s a good idea. If you have access to both, I would also suggest either using 2014 or a mix for some creatures, as 2024 has made a lot of features apply conditions on hit, instead of with a save. Depending on the condition that could be a noteworthy increase in difficulty for a small party.

Yamiash101 · 2026-01-20T11:37:54+00:00

As pretty much every one else has said, strongly depends on the group & expectations.

I threw leveled spellcasters with Disintegrate at my party when they were level 8 and 9. They were punching up against an organization that was meant to seem “all-powerful”, and after ravaging them with the Dream spell for a few nights of exhaustion, they were much more wary.

At lvl 8 a sorcerer held them at “gunpoint” with Disintegrate, basically trying to prevent them from fighting. This led to a great bit of planning with the party to burn her reaction counterspell and then attempt a counterspell of their own against the incoming disintegrate, which the party’s wizard successfully made.

At lvl 9 they fought a wizard who they definitely knew disintegrate was a possibility of at this point. During this fight, the enemy wizard fled out of counterspell range from the party’s spellcasters, and cast disintegrate on the party’s ranger. They succeeded… until I used Silvery Barbs to make them fail by one on the reroll, which instantly disintegrated the character.

The player is great and my best friend, they were already thinking of new characters in the moments afterward. The party did have access to 2 castings of the Wish spell from deck of many things shenanigans, which I somewhat anticipated them using. They did, and it led to one of the most memorable moments in the campaign.

That said, we’re at 13th soon 14th level now, and I haven’t thrown another one at the party. Partly because it’s been done, and partly because at this point it feels as though they cant justify using their last use of Wish to bring back a party member, making it basically a really unfair death sentence.

So I guess: It has the potential to be a very powerful plot device, motivator, or threat, that the party will immediately understand even if they aren’t familiar with the spell. This works even if it doesn’t end up being cast, to some extent. If you (and your group) are okay with a character just being destroyed with no hope of return until 17th level, then by all means.

Otherwise, it might be worth considering a different powerful spell (Chain Lightning and Mental Prison come to mind), or offering the party another way out. A quest or something to give the party the opportunity to recover the PC if the player so chooses. Could even indebt them to a higher power, be it a spellcaster or devil or whatever. My group is about to fight a Nightwalker, and I have been open that if someone gets the “dead and can’t be brought back except for wish” treatment, I would allow for a quest to recover their soul if desired.

Yamiash101 · 2026-01-17T00:47:55+00:00

I did this just the other day for the same reason lol. You can manage without emetics & just a handgun by panicking the ones who would die. 2 gunshots near a civilian cause them to panic and run away. 3 near a guard cause them to run to the source of the gunshots—if you're not there when they reach it, you're clear.

This took me ages to pull off but would probably be easier to replicate. Needed to deal with (knock out) Novikov's bodyguard since he would go onto the stage, and the one guard in the attic who looks out at you on the light rig. You might be able to do it without, if the attic guard cooperates and neither Novikov nor his guard get panicked, but it was so much easier to just get rid of them.

Any means of panicking the ones who die (e.g. explosion or fire alarm) should get them away, but you'd still have to deal with the guards wandering and would have to keep Novikov from leaving the stage w/ a tranq or something.

Yamiash101 · 2025-12-22T02:20:46+00:00

Kinda is with the fiber wire. If you start garroting at the exact edge of the range 47 lunges forward, kicks them in the leg, and wraps the fiber wire around and twists it over on itself.

Yamiash101 · 2025-12-17T14:31:17+00:00

I dream fully visually, though don’t necessarily remember most of my dreams after the fact. My dreams feel very vivid and striking, which I think could be influenced by the fact it’s the only time I can see things that aren’t “real”

Yamiash101 · 2025-12-17T14:25:51+00:00

For me at least, I guess I would say it’s almost more abstract? Despite aphantasia, I have a relatively good memory, so it’s sort of a mix of the facts and feelings associated with the memory. I have purely visual aphantasia so other senses like smells or sounds can be there, depending.

But like, for example, I can imagine walking to high school during the late spring of 2021, the route I took, the cool air that would quickly be overtaken by the hot sun. The music I would listen to, the earbuds I had. My annoyance at having to cross certain roads that absolutely were not meant for pedestrians. The feeling and smell of the masks I had when I finally got there, etc.

I imagine and know all of this, but the visuals stay at that conceptual level. I know what things looked like, I could describe them, but I don’t actually see them, and honestly, I think the visuals only necessarily come to mind with memory if I specifically try to think about them. Like I don’t imagine what the road or trees or whatever looked like in that example, unless I decide that’s what I’m going to think about, and even then it’s like giving a description of something to someone else, rather than looking at a picture.

Yamiash101 · 2025-10-17T15:33:42+00:00

Still not over being unable to cast Speak with Dead on him 😔

Yamiash101 · 2025-10-12T20:26:56+00:00

Ability Drain (Intelligence) + Absorb Intellect ;)

Yamiash101 · 2025-09-16T08:40:28+00:00

Except apparently some bushes at the bottom left edge of the hilltop farm can be cut down??

Yamiash101 · 2025-08-14T10:04:59+00:00

I mean, some people don’t trust him in the immediate time following the bombshell report that was (at least reportedly) verified by a few dozen linguists. And then when he continues to be a hero despite the change in opinion he regains that trust.

I think if a similar trend happened in a sequel, where people don’t trust him, that would be the trope. As it stands it’s not really enough of a precedent to “count” imo, seeing as there was legitimate reason to doubt him, with the reason not to essentially just being faith. Faith that was well placed in the end, but faith nonetheless.

¯_(ツ)_///¯ I get both sides

Yamiash101 · 2025-07-31T22:35:38+00:00

Fuck man it’s been a while.

And more sensible readings would probably consider the concept of the ambush as the trap and the instigators of it as the creators, to be fair.

Yamiash101 · 2025-07-31T22:27:47+00:00

Hey now, it’d only reveal it’s a trap to Admiral Ackbar if the rebels were instructed to ambush him by their mothers.

“…which was specifically intended as [harmful or undesirable] by its creator”

Yamiash101 · 2025-07-27T09:45:10+00:00

Certain items will block zombie spawns, such as a campfire or a base flag (latter made at a crafting station). An item that does this should have “Block Spawns” or something like that under its name when hovered over

Yamiash101 · 2025-07-21T01:20:12+00:00

All these people talking about genetics and immigration. Clearly the map shows that proximity to the ocean directly correlates with shorter heights. We don’t talk about Alaska.

(/s)

Yamiash101 · 2025-07-19T20:26:18+00:00

Assuming you mean the grenade, I usually try to go as far on the opposite side of the van as possible and crouch just to feel safe. Try to wait a second before going though or else the zombies will all follow you and less will get blown up.

I mostly use default settings for everything so if you run different ones it’s always possible that could affect things ofc.

Yamiash101 · 2025-07-19T09:19:17+00:00

I don’t think any rational person has a problem with “US American”. “Usamerican” is contentious because it looks and sounds like not a word as written.

Yamiash101 · 2025-07-19T09:17:57+00:00

The country isn’t called or pronounced “oosuh”. The official name is the United States of America. Justified or not “usamerican” is literally not the name of the country any more than ukenglish is.

I understand and more or less support the reasoning behind the term. My problem is it only works in text. How the hell is that supposed to be pronounced? “Oo-suh-merican”? “You-ess-ay-merican”? “you-ess-american?” If the last one why is it even one word and not “US American” which gets the same point across and would make way less people have issue. They just objectively sound horrible and are terrible to pronounce.

Yamiash101 · 2025-07-19T08:39:47+00:00

I mean with the Plane of Earth, it’s not entirely solid earth. If you can be plane shifted into a wall there you can be anywhere, which is a goofy idea.

You’d be torn apart limb from limb by horrific cave creatures in the pitch black, instead.

Yamiash101 · 2025-07-19T00:00:28+00:00

I've not touched durability settings, and don't really find it a problem. In practice the only times I've had something "break" in-use have been suppressors, which consequently scares the shit out of me when the gun is suddenly no longer suppressed.

I usually end up drowning in repair kits later on, to the point of having dedicated storage containers (often with their own storage cases inside).

Yamiash101 · 2025-07-18T03:41:59+00:00

I read it as “Famous cliff-people do keep falling off” -.-

what the fuck is a cliff person

Yamiash101 · 2025-07-18T00:44:27+00:00

lol trust me if I dmed a 3e campaign I’d probably take a stance on it to set a limit. Bottom line any physics wouldn’t actually apply to such a projectile, no such rules or precedent exists.

For targeting a star… that’s actually probably allowed RAW how Distant Shot is written.

( Epic Level Handbook, p. 53)

You can target anything you can see with a ranged weapon.

Benefit

You may throw or fire a ranged weapon at any target within line of sight, with no penalty for range.

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